Detectives are investigating information that a Dublin gang has been asked to arrange the contract killing of a figure aligned to one of the feuding factions in the Togher-Ballyphehane area of Cork's southside. A senior garda source said the matter is being taken "very seriously", with the contract believed to have been placed on the man's life in retaliation for an earlier attack.

One of the feuding Cork factions has had links with a feared Crumlin-Drimnagh-based gang.

However, gardai said it is unclear whether this particular gang has now been asked to get actively involved in the Cork feud.

The escalation came despite pleas for calm from both Cork gardai and leading politicians.

The Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Mary Shields (FF), appealed to people involved in the feud to step back from the brink.

"These are appalling incidents and I condemn them out of hand. It is very troubling," she said.

Gardai have already significantly increased security in the area, after a pipe-bomb attack last week forced the evacuation of a garda station.

The pipe-bomb attack - which inadvertently targeted the wrong house - occurred three days after another local house was fire-bombed.

Togher garda station had to be evacuated after the innocent householder wheeled the pipe bomb in a pram to the station without realising exactly what the object was.

The fire-bomb attack three days earlier similarly resulted in no injuries but the innocent female occupant of the house was left deeply traumatised by the incident.

Over recent years the feud has resulted in several fire-bomb attacks, two stabbings, a vicious beating and a campaign of public intimidation and harassment.

Dublin gangs are believed to be responsible for at least three of the six gangland killings that have taken place in Cork since 1995.